United States Postmaster General

United States Postmaster General, The U.S. Postal Service said it lost $3.3 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31 — typically its strongest — and that it expects to run out of cash in October unless Congress agrees to cuts in facilities and employees.

“If the Postal Service is unable to reduce its operating costs by $20 billion a year by 2015, we may not be able to return to profitability,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said at a board meeting in Washington today. “We may become a long-term burden to the taxpayers if we are not able to make these reductions quickly.”

The ninth consecutive quarter of losses may increase pressure on Congress from the Postal Service and customers to approve legislation intended to return it to solvency.

“We have a Postal Service that essentially is living from paycheck to paycheck, which is a very risky proposition for the American economy and the 8 million private-sector workers whose jobs rely on the mail,” Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, said in an e-mail. “Each day Congress fails to enact postal reform, this problem grows more difficult and perhaps more expensive to resolve.”